


A x Rookie x Mistake

by cynicsAxiom



Series: An Imposter's Honor [2]
Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Attempted Rookie-Crushing, Friends to Enemies, Gen, Hunter Exam (Hunter X Hunter), Tonpa being a bastard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:01:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28839792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynicsAxiom/pseuds/cynicsAxiom
Summary: This is it; your very first Hunter Exam! You've been dreaming of this day for a long time, and now it's finally within your grasp! Going into the first phase, you are partnered up with an unassuming man named Tonpa, who insists that the two of you are going to be the best of friends.
Relationships: Original Female Character & Original Non-Binary Character, Tonpa (Hunter X Hunter) & Original Female Character, Tonpa (Hunter X Hunter) & Reader
Series: An Imposter's Honor [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2114688





	A x Rookie x Mistake

The rattling of the elevator had synced up with the pounding of your heart as you slowly descended down to the subterranean room where you would presumably take your first real steps to becoming a Hunter. It was your first time taking the Hunter Exam, and you had no idea what to expect, but you were excited for it nonetheless. Ever since you were a child, you’d admired Hunters, and you knew that, one day, you were going to join their ranks. Now that you were eighteen, that dream was finally about to become a reality.

The elevator _clunked_ loudly and the doors slithered open. Stepping through, you found yourself in a large, concrete room. The area was shaped like a cube, extending several hundred feet on each side. The ceiling seemed almost cavernous, especially compared to the throng of other applicants already assembled before you. Giving the room a quick glance, you guessed that there could be upwards of five hundred people in this room with you. It was a little intimidating, but you hadn’t come all this way just to turn back now. Steeling yourself, you pushed forward into the crowd.

Eventually, you stepped into an open space somewhere in the middle of the room. There were people everywhere, standing shoulder-to-shoulder. Most looked pretty average, like yourself, though there were a handful that stood out to you due to their garish clothes and outlandish hairstyles. Your gaze had been lingering on a tall, mysterious individual with loose, billowing clothes and a dark face mask when you felt a tapping on your shoulder. Turning around, you found a short, older-looking man with a wide frame grinning up at you.

“Well, hi there!” he said with a chipper voice. “You’re new, right? I haven’t seen you here before.”

You gave this strange man a smile and nod.

“That’s great! New applicants means new friends!” His eyes gleamed as he held a hand out to you. “The name’s Tonpa.”

You shook Tonpa’s hand and introduced yourself. His head bobbed, looking you up and down as he continued to smile. You asked Tonpa if this was _his_ first time as well, to which he laughed jovially.

“Hardly! I’ve taken the exam _loads_ of times! Never passed once, though,” he shrugged. “But hey, maybe I’ll get lucky one of these days!”

You gave Tonpa a little pat on the shoulder and some words of encouragement. His smile only seemed to intensify.

“Say,” he said, “I kinda like you! You seem really nice. Here—” Tonpa rummaged around in his satchel for a moment. “—I’ve got somethin’ for ya!”

Tonpa reached over to you, and in his hand, you saw a shiny, orange can.

“It’s juice!” he beamed. “I always make sure to bring plenty of drinks and snacks to the exam; you never know when they’ll come in handy!”

Touched by the gesture, you took the juice from Tonpa. He pulled a second can out of his bag and popped it open, looking to you expectantly. You followed suit, and clinked cans with Tonpa.

“Well, here’s to new friendships!” he grinned. “And to good luck on this year’s Hunter Exam!”

You smiled and nodded in assent before raising the can to your lips. Before you could take a sip, however, you felt another hand on your shoulder.

“I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.”

It was the masked figure. They stood behind you, and were even more imposing up close. Their voice was hard to place, as was nearly everything about them, but it was this very unassumingness about their person that made them so intriguing to you. As you stared at them trying to read them a little, they pointed a gloved finger at the can of juice in your hand.

“You probably shouldn’t drink any of that.”

“Wh-why not?!” Tonpa sputtered.

The figure turned subtly to face Tonpa.

“Because the last guy you gave juice to is doubled over in the corner, trying not to shit himself.”

“I-is that so?” Tonpa chuckled weakly. “Oh, well, the juice must have… uh… gone bad, then!”

He quickly snatched the can from your hand and poured it out on the ground.

“Woops! My bad, friend! Well, at least this fellow here warned us before anyone else got hurt!” The figure’s presence clearly made Tonpa nervous; he looked like he was sweating bullets. “Anyway, I’m sure I’ll see you around once the exam starts! Bye!”

Puzzled, you turned back to the figure at your side.

“I’d be careful around that one if I were you,” they noted. “I can sense something off about him.”

Before you could reply, they walked away, disappearing into the crowd of other exam hopefuls. With a sigh, you found yourself alone again. There wasn’t much time to ruminate on this, however, as the far wall began to slide apart, revealing itself to actually be a large pair of concrete blast doors. As the terribly loud scraping echoed throughout the chamber, you quickly slipped through the crowd to get a better look at the front of the room. When the doors finally stopped and the dust had settled, there stood two imposing figures staring grimly into the crowd of applicants. The man on the left was tall and broad, and even though he looked a little old, he was clearly very fit. His white hair was tied up to resemble two flame-like horns protruding from his temples, and his painted face and dramatic moustache made him look somewhat draconic in appearance. He wore a long, red-and-black overcoat with a fur collar, and large, heavy looking boots. His arms were crossed over his chest and he surveyed the crowd with a look that seemed to be a mix of contempt and annoyance. At his side was a shorter, more slender man dressed head-to-toe in cow print. His jacket and pants were both covered in black splotches, and he wore a small, domed hat of the same pattern, with two small horns, one on either side. With his hands on his hips, the cow man cleared his throat to address the murmuring crowd.

“Greetings, applicants,” he boomed in a stern voice, “and welcome to the Hunter Exam. Your skill and determination have gotten you all this far, but now is the time for you to really be put to the test. My name is Mizaistom Nana, and I will be one of the examiners for this, the first phase of the Hunter Exam.”

Whispers floated through the crowd. You yourself could barely contain your awe. Mizaistom was one of the top Hunters in the association. The two-star Crime Hunter was a member of the Association Chairman’s cabinet; never in a million years did you think you’d ever meet someone like him, much less have him proctoring your Hunter Exam!

“With me,” Mizaistom continued, “is my colleague, Botobai Gigante, who will also be proctoring the first phase.”

Botobai Gigante was here, too?! He was a three-star Terrorist Hunter, and another of the Chairman’s personal cabinet members.

Botobai grumbled something under his breath.

“With that, I will now explain what this phase will entail.”

Mizaistom opened a pair of large double doors behind him, showing another, brightly-lit room with a raised platform in the middle.

“An essential part of being a Hunter is knowing how to place your trust in someone,” Mizaistom began. “While most Hunters prefer to work alone, there will come times when you must work together with your fellow association members to achieve common goals. In such situations, it is important to understand the value of teamwork, and how to work effectively with a partner. So, for the first phase of the exam, you will all be paired up with one of your fellow applicants. The two of you will face one of the other pairs in a fight on this stage behind me. You may use any means at your disposal, and victory can only be declared when both members of a team are either knocked unconscious, forced out of the ring, or willing to concede. If your team loses, you will fail the exam. And remember, this is a teamwork exercise, so if we, the examiners, feel as if your team did not display sufficient coordination, you will fail the exam. You will be allowed to choose your partner for this phase; when you have done so, approach the stage. Then, we will begin the examination.”

Another wave of murmurs and buzz swept over the crowd as the applicants began chatting with one another in order to find a suitable partner for the competition. You looked around for a moment, trying to see if the mysterious stranger was around anywhere, though you couldn’t seem to spot them in the ever-shifting mass. So, when Tonpa sidled up next to you and asked to be your partner for the first phase, you decided to accept his offer. The two of you approached Mizaistom and Botobai, and they directed you toward the examination stage.

When the fights began, you and Tonpa were standing by the stage. You had been one of the later pairs to give your names to the examiners, so you had a decent amount of time before you would actually have to get your hands dirty. You figured this would be a good time to talk about strategy with your partner, but Tonpa just dismissed you.

“It’s pointless to try to come up with a strategy when we don’t know who our opponents will be,” he argued. “With all of the different people here, there’s no way we’d be able to account for all of their fighting styles! We might as well just wait until we’re faced with someone, and wing it from there!”

You had to admit, there _was_ a certain logic to his argument, although you were a little miffed that he didn’t seem at all interested in preparing for your fight. It was almost as if he _wanted_ the both of you to fail.

So, instead of strategizing, you decided to watch the fights. Most of the teams were pretty good, though not excellent. The best teams were the ones comprised of people who already knew each other, couples and siblings mostly. The rest of the groups performed admirably, but were a little underwhelming. Watching this crop of applicants, the examiners seemed a little disappointed.

It wasn’t long before you noticed someone familiar take the stage. It was the masked stranger, along with their partner, a nervous-looking man with ruddy brown hair and thick, distinctive eyebrows. Up against them were two tough-looking men in matching leather jackets. They looked to be in some sort of gang, and both of them had slick, black hair which was styled up in a big pompadour. One of the pompadours cracked his knuckles and flashed his opponents a sinister grin before elbowing the one next to him.

“Look at these two clowns,” he chuckled in a loud, intimidating voice. “They won’t stand a chance against us, the Blackheart Boys!”

His partner smirked and nodded in agreement.

“You may begin!” Mizaistom bellowed.

“Let’s get ‘em, Billy!”

The two gangsters rushed forward, their faces flushed with excitement. The man with the eyebrows yelped as they approached, but before they could get to close, the masked stranger intercepted them. The stranger caught the fists of their would-be assailants easily, causing the Blackheart Boys to falter. Taking advantage of their moment of hesitation, the masked stranger punched one in the face, knocking him back, and used both hands to flip the other one over their shoulder and onto the ground in front of the eyebrow guy. The eyebrow guy looked as if he was about to be sick, but he managed to land a solid kick to the winded pompadour on the ground, sending him tumbling off of the stage.

The remaining pompadour growled angrily as he cradled his nose.

“Billy!” he cried. “No, dammit! You’ve really made me angry now!”

He pointed aggressively at the masked stranger, who was simply standing on the stage, their posture loose and disinterested.

“I don’t know who you are, buddy,” the pompadour continued, nearly foaming at the mouth. “But you’ve messed with the wrong brothers! Because now, you’re gonna feel the wrath of none other than _Bobby Blackheart!_ ”

The stranger said nothing, clearly unimpressed. Bobby let out a wild cry and rushed the stranger, attempting to tackled them and knock them to the ground. However, the stranger managed to step out of the way and, using Bobby’s own momentum against him, sent him flying out of the ring, where he landed on the stone floor with a dull _thud_. Mizaistom rang a small brass bell.

“The winners have been decided! Victors, please step down from the stage and proceed into the next room.”

Mizaistom motioned toward where Botobai stood at the opposite end of the room, guarding a large metal door. The masked stranger and the man with the eyebrows hopped down from the stage and proceeded towards Botobai, who opened the door for them and let them pass through. You turned to Tonpa, and he smiled at you and gave a slight shrug.

“See?” he said. “Nothing to worry about. If those two can make it to the next round, then so can we!”

You nodded, and started getting excited for your match.

“The winners have been decided!”

Mizaistom ushered the last pair of victorious applicants off the stage and through the back door before motioning towards you and Tonpa to take your positions. Your heart jumping into your throat, you mounted the stage, helping Tonpa up behind you. As you took some deep breaths and tried to get focused, you glanced across the stage and looked at your opponents for the first phase. They didn’t look too tough; there was a tall, scrawny, anxious young man, and his partner was a small, wrinkly man who looked to be much older than Tonpa. Mizaistom called out, and the fight was on.

You wanted to make the first move, figuring that the faster you managed to get these guys out of the ring, the better. You took a step to dash forward, but as you moved, you felt something suddenly appear in front of your legs, tripping you and toppling you over onto the mat, face-first. Groaning, you looked up to see Tonpa standing over you.

“Heh heh, sorry,” he laughed sheepishly. “I must have tripped you by accident.”

You grunted and told him that’s okay, scrambling to get back on your feet. Luckily, the other two hadn’t tried to make a move while you were down.

“Geez,” the nervous man whined. “Do we really have to fight them? That fatso looks totally incompetent, and the girl can barely stand!”

“Quiet, son,” the older man frowned. “We should not underestimate them. They’ve havd as much time to prepare as we have.”

Crap. You and Tonpa didn’t have a strategy! These guys may not have looked like much, but they were prepared; they weren’t going to be pushovers. But maybe you’d be able to use your lack of cohesion to your advantage… if they were expecting a well thought-out strategy, they might be taken off-guard by trying to figure out the pattern in your team’s chaos.

As you mulled this over, Tonpa made his move. Flailing wildly, he began to cry out as he waddled over to the other team. Though they both looked surprised, they were easily able to dodge Tonpa’s attempt at attacking them. Tonpa, however, didn’t stop when he noticed he had missed; he just kept going until he fell off the stage. You could hear Mizaistom and Botobai audibly sigh.

“Wow…” the tall son muttered. “That was… pretty pathetic.”

“I’ll say,” his father agreed.

Oh well. You were on your own now; so what? Tonpa may not have been the best choice as a partner, but he was doing his best, and you weren’t about to let him down. Besides, becoming a hunter was your dream, too, and you were determined not to be disqualified before you even made it past the first phase.

While your opponents were distracted by Tonpa, who was now making a big show of trying to stand up, you managed to run up behind them and hit them with some quick neck chops. The younger man went down almost immediately, and the older man staggered a bit. Not wanting to give him a chance to recover, you swiftly brought your leg up and kicked him in the chest, sending him over the edge of the stage.

“Sorry!” you shouted.

The old man just groaned and hopped back on his feet. You turned around to see what the younger man was doing, and found him still collapsed on the floor. You went over and nudged him a little, and when he didn’t stir, you informed Mizaistom that he had been rendered unconscious. Mizaistom nodded and declared you and Tonpa the victors.

“Please make your way to the next room,” he grimaced, waving a hand towards Botobai.

Botobai grunted as you and Tonpa approached, and he stared daggers at the both of you as he opened the steel door to the next area. Tonpa just flashed him an oblivious smile and waved.

When you crossed the threshold, you found yourselves in another large, empty room. The walls were green and cushioned, as was the floor, and the other applicants who had passed the previous phase were lounging around waiting for the rest of the fights to be over with. When the two of you had found somewhere to settle, you turned to Tonpa, your mind full of questions.

“Um… what the hell was that?”

Tonpa turned to you, his face covered in shock.

“Wh… what do you mean?”

You explained to him that you were a little frustrated with the way he handled himself during the fight, and that his recklessness could have cost you the match. Tonpa frowned and turned away from you, huffing.

“So, I guess this is how you _really_ feel about me,” he grumbled. “Figures. You’re just like the rest of them. You don’t care. You’re only in it for yourself, others be damned.”

You tried to explain to Tonpa that this was not the case, that you _do_ care, but that if you’re going to continue working together throughout the exam, you’ll both have to be a little more coordinated next time, but he just dismissed you and crossed his arms.

“Working together? Yeah, right. I don’t even want to be friends with you anymore, unless you apologize to me right now.”

You were bewildered. What did you have to apologize for? Was he really that upset with you? You supposed that maybe it was a little harsh of you to expect him to be able to do more than he was capable of. But still…

Tonpa turned to you, expectantly.

“Well?” he said, cocking an eyebrow. “I’m waiting.”

You thought it over for a moment, and figured that this was probably something stupid to be arguing about, and that if it really meant that much to Tonpa, you might as well just apologize so that he didn’t feel so bad about it. You told Tonpa you were sorry, to which he merely smirked and nodded his head sharply. He didn’t seem like he wanted to talk anymore for the moment, so you decided to give him some space and walk around the room for a bit.

As you wandered through the crowd, you felt a familiar hand on your shoulder. You turned around and saw the masked person, who gave you a quick wave as you smiled with recognition. You congratulated them on their fight, and told them that you thought they were really good. They thanked you and returned the compliment.

“It was quite a solid strategy,” they noted, “even though it made Tonpa look like a complete idiot.”

You laughed and confessed that there hadn’t been a plan at all, you had just been opportunistic. The masked figure seemed to be amused by this and let out a soft chuckle.

“You can think on your feet. That’s admirable.”

They looked off into the crowd, back in the general direction of where Tonpa was sitting.

“I still wouldn’t trust Tonpa, if I were you. He doesn’t seem to be holding you back any, but still… I’ve been talking with some of the other applicants; returners. They say that Tonpa is—”

Before they could finish their sentence, the steel door swung open and Mizaistom entered the room, along with one final pair of applicants.

“Alright, everyone!” he said, his voice loud and stern. “You are the group who has passed the first phase of the Hunter Exam; congratulations.”

There were murmurs floating around the room as Mizaistom continued.

“You, the two-hundred applicants who passed, will now proceed to the second phase. I will be escorting you there, while Botobai sees to those who have failed.”

Mizaistom strode across the room and, producing a small keycard with the Hunter Association’s symbol emblazoned on the back, opened a door that had been hidden along the back wall. He stepped through it, then turned back to face the assembled applicants.

“Alright, then,” he said. “Follow me!”


End file.
